The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation has called for an ambitious strategy on textiles. This will include: extended producer responsibility legislation and incentives to boost end markets. The confederation says the strategy is needed because of increased tonnages from kerbside textile collections and has called on the European Commission to introduce a strategy to render textiles circular throughout the value chain.

The development of fast fashion has deeply changed textile consumption patterns across the world, which has impacted the clothing recycling sector. While EU law obligating authorities to separately collect textiles by 2025 will increase the supply of used textiles, it means there is a need to complement the separate this with equally ambitious measures aiming at pulling the demand for re-use and for material.

Resources charity Wrap has released an update on its Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, launched in 2013 aiming at reducing carbon, waste and water reductions. Retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Next have both signed up for SCAP. Under the commitments, signatories have pledged to reduce carbon, water and waste to landfill by 15 per cent alongside a 3.5 per cent reduction in the amount of waste arising per ton of clothing by 2020. While water and carbon targets have been achieved, there has only been a four per cent reduction in waste going to landfill since 2012.